Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Live Well ❯ Fan Play ( Chapter 10 )

Live Well

Chapter Ten: Fan Play

Vegeta watched his wife over on the other side of the board. She seemed rather calm even faced against him, his father, and his grandfather. All three were veterans of the game, and of actual real-time battles, and this game was nothing to them. They had led armies into battle, and conquered entire galaxies, but his wife sat unaffected and calm.

She merely smiled behind the new fan her eunuch guard had given to her. His grandfather nodded to him, and patted his shoulder, “This will prove interesting.”

“For a few minutes,” the king said. As strange as his father was, Vegeta could already see the keen edge of battle coming over the man, and he knew that his father's ridiculous attitude would not permeate this match.

“Perhaps,” his grandfather said, and then he sat down himself. Before the four players sat a huge podium, which was slowly building the city's setting. While the game set itself, they could watch as each street corner and building of the past emerged as if they had never stood the test of time. The city was practically glistening, and Vegeta saw as Kakarotto's eyes softened just slightly above her fan, seeming to be perhaps … sad.

He sneered as the low-level soldiers' ghettos began to pop up, and turned to his forefathers, “I suppose that every era has their faults. Look at that. Just as filthy as they are now.” His gaze met his wife's, and he said, “And you want to fight as them? You'd lose in the first five minutes.”

“You're not backing out, are you?” His lip curled as her sad eyes vanished, and glared at him in return, “That would be a shame.”

Clutching at the control table, he said as calmly as he could manage, “No one's backing out. That would be giving in to your ridiculous scare tactics, and such strategies will never work with us.”

“Indeed? I don't want anyone to back out, Vegeta,” she said, and he saw his father and grandfather twitch at the name, but they did nothing else. Kakarotto gently waved her fan at her face, inspecting it as she spoke, “I want to play against you. General Nappa would've played similarly to Lady Sunabi since he was her teacher, and it would have been dull to beat another player like her.”

“I see,” the emperor said, and Vegeta stared at him, “You would like us to play at our full potential. Son. Grandson. I order you not to underestimate this woman during our match. Play with your all.” He cast his eyes to Vegeta, “Only fools claim a victory before the battle has even begun.”

The war-game podium trilled, alerting the four that the setting and pieces had been created. Now there was only the matter of the players to set where their pieces and squadrons would be. While Vegeta put armies down onto the playing field, he often glanced up at his wife, wondering at her sudden attitude and poise. He could still remember how pliable and fearful she had been before they had married, and closer to him yet was the memory of this morning of how willing and ready she had been - all before she had learned of his romps with his maids. Since he was the prince, it was his right to take any he wished to his bed, but this woman - still so very young - had forced him into a bet for his very sanity!

What was so appealing about her that he should drop all other prospects? He knew how small her breasts were, and that her hips were still slender and that of a girl's. Even should the baby help fill in the gaps, he could not see her form into a beauty. Comely perhaps, but she would never become anything like his mother or grandmother. She would always be but a girl in his eyes. This foolish game and bet proved it.

Once they were finished, he watched the game load their players, and he noted that his father had placed his forces on the ground and in the streets, and his grandfather's troops were ranged around and inside the palace. Vegeta's were en route in the sky to the deeper end of the city where his wife's rebels would be, but upon looking at the board in the ghettos, he could see not one rebel on the streets. He chuckled to himself as he realized that she had hidden them within the buildings of the ghettos, but that was as far as she could go. Buildings were easily destroyed, and the rebels would be stamped under his army's feet before his father or grandfather would get to play. Already, he could see his forefathers become slightly disappointed.

Kakarotto's forces only consisted of the ghettos currently, and the low-levels of those regions of the city. The rebels of this scenario had an interesting quirk however. As they would move toward the palace, they would affect other Saiyajin peasants, and the masses would join their cause, soon encompassing the entire city - the whole Rebel City against the Imperial Saiyajin Army was the favored result as it would give the rebel player the edge of majority. Yet this was easily avoidable by killing off the Saiyajin from the ghettos before they reached the majority of the population.

Not that even a whole city of rebels was a problem for them, but it was always troublesome to hunt down every last peasant.

She had made it all easy for him by hiding the rebels. If he just destroyed the terribly built constructions of the ghettos and some of the surrounding buildings just in case, the game would be over almost instantly. He heard the soft flap of the queen and empress' fans, and smiled to himself.

This was easy.

With their reviews done, the next turn started, and he and his father went to work on the buildings quickly - not even needed to converse about it to know that this was the correct course of action.

While the buildings were destroyed however, he saw that Kakarotto had only smiled, and he soon realized why. Usually there was a call from the podium when one side won, and if she had any left alive, they would have gone into the battle screen to show how she would retaliate. Neither of these things happened. The emperor's voice startled him, “She somehow moved the rebels out of range of the ghettos. Whether or not this is a fluke, I don't care. Find the rebels, and destroy them.”

Every turn, however, Vegeta could only watch as no battle screens popped up, and less and less peasants appeared on the streets to work at their stations to barter and trade. Their stockpiles, which relied on the work of the city's peasants was lowering. He was not privy to Kakarotto's stockpiles, but he was certain that she was happily rolling in silver, gold and food - not to mention water, one of the most precious commodities of their desert planet. He felt some slight relief that, for some reason, their incoming stockpiles would never fully deplete, yet when the entire city was the fabled Rebel City, a quarter of their incoming stockpiles went with it, and that was a blow no one would want to take. Seventy-five percent was still more than enough to take care of the rebels though.

If they ever found them!

Then in one turn, there was no one but army troops on the streets. Vegeta looked at his grandfather, and murmured, “We can't just destroy the entire city, looking for them.”

The emperor studied her before he nodded, “See what happens.”

“What?” King Vegeta leaned in to listen more carefully, frowning at the man, “You can't mean that. This is just the Talji'Be Rebellion.”

“And she's winning it,” he said, and Vegeta swallowed hard, remembering the bet abruptly. “Destroy the city, and leave no building standing. We will not lose to a First Wife.”

“Only fools declare their own victory.” Kakarotto tilted her head slightly, “Isn't that what you said?”

He turned his eyebrows down hard, and said, “Are you calling me a fool?”

“Yes. You won't find anything if you destroy the city.” Smiling, she leaned back in her seat, fanning herself lightly even as the three men stared and gnashed their fangs. The empress and queen's fans had stopped flapping long ago, only watching currently as Kakarotto said, “Have you checked your stockpiles lately?”

“Grandson,” he said as an order, but Vegeta stared at him, wondering why he seemed to be falling for this. “Grandson! Check the stockpile.” Growling, the prince turned to his console, summoning the review of their stockpile for the last few turns, and then went silent. Mentally doing calculations in his head, Vegeta's jaw started to drop. His grandfather looked over his shoulder before he nodded, “Seventy percent efficiency. That's a strange number.”

“What?” The king rose to go to the emperor's left side, peering in at the graphs as well, “That's impossible though. With the Rebel City, you can only get this down to seventy-five percent at best.”

Rubbing his chin, the emperor said, “Check our supply lanes, and make sure there aren't any rebels stealing from them.” He eyed the princess, “I must congratulate you briefly, Princess. This game is proving to be far more interesting than I thought it would be.”

“I don't mean to entertain you,” she said, “I'm just playing a game.”

“Aren't we all,” Vegeta heard his grandfather whisper, but Kakarotto didn't seem to hear it, typing into her console before ending her turn.

It was several turns after that when it happened. Vegeta had been telling the emperor and king about the steady decline of their income each turn, and then suddenly, there were rebels in the palace.

The king's troops were on the other end of the playing field, and Vegeta's own were barely a turn away, so his grandfather moved swiftly to stop the intruders who were transforming servants to their cause. It took Vegeta a moment to realize that the rebels had taken something, and he squinted at the display, trying to determine what the bundle was before his wife said, “I'm sorry, Emperor, but I'm going to kill you now.”

Scowling up at his wife, he watched as she pressed some more buttons on her console for her turn, and then he saw the number of people in the Imperial Army go down by one. Vegeta paled when he remembered then that his grandfather had been the Prince's heir at the time of this battle. Emperor Vegeta had just been a baby, and Kakarotto had just killed the bundle that represented him in the game.

Sparing a glance at her abdomen, he sat back slowly, exhaling a long breath to relax himself. Nothing about this game had been right from the start, and Kakarotto's calm visage was a deep thorn in his side, twisting and writhing as it stuck in deeper, but he could do nothing to stop it. This new development had made Vegeta even more uneasy, and currently, he could do little else but look at her stomach, clutching at the table while the emperor cleaned up whatever rebels were left in the palace. When their turn was over, he patted Vegeta's shoulder again for what seemed the thousandth time.

He said, “It's just a game.”

“I'm going to talk to her after this,” Vegeta said softly, pressing in his own commands to send some of his forces close to the palace.

“That's probably best,” he finally retracted his hand. “Even though it is a game, this is quite normal, and happens all the time. My mother was a strong woman, and survived the rebellion's attacks because they had been foreseen ahead of time, and the rebels had been weaklings.” After a moment, the emperor put in his own orders, and then watched as the Imperial Army killed the Princess piece, “This was not foreseen though, Grandson, and the rebels had been stronger than normal third-class rebels. What does that tell you?”

“Information is important,” he said, and then finally raised his gaze to meet the surprised eyes of Kakarotto. She had seen the killing of the Princess piece, and seemed to be storing the sequence in her mind. She now knew what would happen to her should she fail to protect his heir. Vegeta raised his voice so that she could hear him, “Was this for information, Princess?”

“Curiosity,” she said, “though that amounts to the same thing.”

His cold clammy hands started to slacken, and he sat straight in his chair again. The game commenced, and Vegeta refused to let his guard down once more.

As the stockpiles went down, the three men went to work on posting guards about the palace, and sent troops marching up and down the palace halls while within, another wedding was happening. The prince watched it all halfheartedly, only able to recall the woman that had stepped out of the rejuvenation fluid, and suddenly defied everything that he was doing. How one night she had told him that she wanted more, but didn't know how to tell him, and then had paid too bitter of a price. He could remember her laughter later that same day, and then realized that it had been from knowing she had surprised them all - he, and his parents and grandparents.

I don't want to marry anyone else, he thought, but I'm going to have to anyway. You've surprised us all again, and you've shocked me the most. Do you know that? Was that in your plans? Are you laughing behind your fan now, Princess?

---

Sighing into her fan, she then looked down at it again, eyes narrowing as she mentally recalled all of the placements of her troops again. Just one more turn, and it would all be over. She wondered what they would do when they saw the numbers of rebels pour into the palace.

Not only was she using the caverns under the city, but also she had put the tunnels deep in the deserts that lead to other great cities to use. In her next turn, she was finally going to instigate her assault. She had at last constructed an army to match against their own - only hers had been beaten and forged into their places while the whole Saiyajin Army had been slowly wasted by searching for her `hiding' army.

Using the tunnels to overtake the other cities, she had built stadiums for her army, pitting them against one another to strengthen them before letting them heal. Continuously, she had done this until she had finally molded the rebels into a true fighting force.

Had this been a true war, they would have found her out in only a day, but with the war-game acting as a blind, she could do as she wished. They didn't know that they could move out from what was visible on the display after all, and she wasn't about to reveal this little secret to them if she had the chance.

She put in her orders, and began to march her armies toward Talji'Be.

They didn't appear for several turns, but when they did, she watched the emperor and king's faces twist into displeasure. Her husband only lowered his head, inspecting the forms suddenly appearing on the streets of the city. After a moment, he said, “There are more rebels than there should be.”

“What a spectacular game this has been, and we're at what? Twenty percent efficiency?” The emperor didn't even wait for Vegeta's confirmation, and laughed, “Princess, you are very interesting. I can't wait to see how you cheated.”

“I didn't cheat,” she said, pulling a pout. “I've never even touched this board before now.”

“Yes, I can imagine that the deal with your husband would be off then,” Emperor Vegeta said.

Kakarotto almost expected the prince to smirk or laugh, but he did neither. Watching him while they played their turns, they began a defense against the Rebel Army that had finally appeared. Vegeta played his turn with his head down, and appeared distant to the rest of the room. Kakarotto tried to force him from her mind, just wanting to finish and win the game quickly.

She would not be just his dessert at the end of this day, and she would remain his main course for the rest of her life. Though - she recalled - it was not possible for him to lay with her while the baby was still so tiny, so she supposed that she would have to resort to activities that she didn't particularly like.

She only hoped that he knew that he couldn't be involved in other sexual activities with other women either.

*-*-*

Turles switched the ship into auto-pilot, and then brought up news reports from Vegeta-sei for the past few weeks that he had been gone. Finding the obituaries for deceased soldiers in action, he grinned at the tiny excerpt on Captain Bardock of the fifty-ninth squad that had been in charge of the recent Kanassa-sei purge.

“Captain Bardock of the fifty-ninth squadron was killed in the middle of his Oozaru transformation by several Kanassajin soldiers. All went well during the rest of the battle, and the mission was completed by his troops in honor of their fallen captain.”

He searched through the other obituaries that he could find before he actually found a small article written about the event. The headlines of “Mother Loses Family, and Life” caught his attention, and he skimmed it before he nodded, knowing that all had gone according to plan.

Finally, he spun around on his chair, and smirked at his captives, saying, “You've got two choices. Either Cretuy-sei or Est-sei - which do you want to land on?”

“Why are you doing this? I've never heard of Saiyajin helping anyone else but their own, so why?”

“Oh, I am only helping my own,” he said, leaning in slightly, causing them to back up an inch, “it just turns out that the only way to help them is by helping you.”

Turles returned to his inspection of the news reports, rifling through the business and politics section to see if any mention of the Kanassa-sei politicians were made, but found nothing of interest.

They should have been considering themselves lucky that they were alive after the assault, and that they were even allowed to keep their little families. This was only because they had been with them when Turles finally come to take them to his ship.

He said, “Cretuy-sei or Est-sei. Pick one already.”

“Both,” another captive said, “split us between the two planets.”

Studying the Kanassajin silently, he then nodded, “I'll see what I can do to remain out of sight.” He smirked wider, “After all, this is so that my family remains safe and `dead.'”

*-*-*

I'm going to be cheap, and not let people know who won until the next chapter.

Because I'm mean like that.

And I can't really concentrate anymore …

*-*-*